As the poems in this collection appear to be loosely linked,
it is clear that, unfortunately, the hummingbird, e.g. this baby’s heart, does
in fact “seek the freedom of the skies.”In the poem immediately following the above (“Swallows”), the speaker
describes herself in the aftermath of this horrible event: “Stretched and
stitched, / I lie empty, raw, alone / in the cold corridor of the hospital,”
hope disappearing like swallows at sunset. Thus, it quickly becomes known that death and
grief are the overarching themes of this collection.The poems in it rely heavily on metaphor
(especially those of birds) and simile, as the speaker seeks solace in folklore
(“Solace”) and poetry and art itself.There
is for example a short homage to Frida Kahlo, who lay “between life and death /
. . . in her sickbed.”

Her attention to poetic craft is further emphasized in
“Hagfish,” which is almost something like a short manifesto.Here, she likens poets — female poets in
particular — to “ancient snake sisters of the Delphic Sybil” and depicts them

devour[ing] rotting remains,

we scavenge on the strange,

stripping morsels of consonants

from crumbling corpses.

Again, soundplay is the fore, and this is a good example of
it in an English version, where usually the Irish lends itself to this just
slightly more readily.Dordéan, do Chroí / A Hummingbird, your
Heart ends with the short poem “Grandmother,” where death and new life meet
(“Now I stand at your funeral, / newborn nestled into my neck”), and despite
the gloomy circumstances there is some sense of hope realized after all.